Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Facebook games have the stigma of being time-and-money pits, promoting lackluster design with an emphasis on cash shops just to play the basic game for more than ten minutes. When you think of gaming on Facebook, one game springs to mind – Farmville. However, there is more to Facebook gaming than planting crops and getting different colored cows; in fact, there are actual MMOGs to be found. I, your intrepid reporter, have plunged into the sordid underbelly of Facebook to find five MMOGs that are actually worth playing. After countless hours spent in app hell, I can finally deliver such a list.

Is there more to Facebook gaming than cows?

The problem with most Facebook games are that you can easily spend much more in a few hours than you would paying for a monthly subscription to a normal MMOG. Many Facebook games require you to expend “energy” or some other attribute to do actions. Normally, those kinds of attributes replenish slowly over time, usually with a timer off to the side counting down to when you gain back a single point. When you run out of said “energy”, you can either wait a long while to let it replenish or you can spend some kind of virtual currency, purchased with real life cash, to buy a refill or a potion to replenish the points. In addition, many useful items (of the more powerful variety than you would find in the normal loot drops within the game) need to be bought or parts of the game need to be unlocked by spending real-life dough.

The games listed here allow you a great deal of gameplay without spending any real money and fall into the traditional MMOG style: gathering quests from NPCs, gaining levels, having special abilities, and so on. I must make something absolutely clear. I am not saying that these games are as good as or better than subscription-based MMOGs. Because these are Facebook games, they tend to have simplified crafting, no real character appearance options (besides hairstyle or color), easier combat systems, and streamlined skill options (if they have skill trees at all). These games are designed to be easy to play so players can easily pick them up and entice their friends to join the fray. If you want some mindless action and fun, then you’re looking in the right place.

THIS IS PANDALAND!!! Uh...I mean, THIS IS SPARTA!

GodsWar Online: This game features a Greek theme with the player choosing to represent Athens or Sparta. Don’t let the setting fool you as that historical accuracy (or even attempt at historical accuracy) do not even think about making an appearance. The game does a nice job of holding your hand as you learn the ropes. A nice feature is an auto-travel ability where you can click on an NPC or a creature in the quest description and your character will walk to where they are located. From the very beginning, you’ll have pets that can accompany you and help you out with skills of their own. Nothing says “This is Sparta!” like a panda bear with a short sword. The animation is done in the anime style and is cutesy in nature. A key feature is what they call AFK mode where you can have your character automatically attack and cast spells on whatever enemies are around you while you chat with friends or such. If you do it too long, the game will point out that this feature is to allow you time to chat and not to walk away for hours and then it will come out of AFK mode. A thing to remember is that you don’t pick up any loot when you’re in AFK mode.